The OFFICIAL Unofficial Achewood Message Board
Achewood => Achewood => Topic started by: The Townleybomb on January 06, 2007, 06:10:23 am
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Hey folks,
Don't know if this is the place for this, but I vaguely recall reading a travel guide to Vegas by Chris Onstad at some point when the strip was fairly new. A few google searches have turned up nothing. Does anybody know anything about this, or am I buggin'? I'd give you 6 to 5 on buggin', but who knows....
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The only thing that comes immediately to mind for me is this strip:
http://achewood.com/index.php?date=05092003
It seems that Onstad doesn't go too far out on a limb in preferring the Bellagio to either Circus Circus or Binion's.
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I think you might mean Rands from Jerkcity.
http://www.randsinrepose.com/archives/2002/05/01/rands_vegas_system_prelude.html
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Ha hah... my ex took me on my first trip to Vegas. He got us a suite at the hotel at Mandalay Bay, so we weren't exactly fighting rats at Circus-Circus with a rake.
Vegas is ... amazing. We walked all over the new strip. We had steak at Gallagher's at NY NY that made me weep with joy, it was so delicious. We checked out the Shark Reef exhibit at the Mandalay Bay, which was pretty schweet (I totally want a jellygiraffe aquarium). The whole time we were there was just magical.
My favorite part about Vegas is that public drunkenness is not only encouraged, it's expected. Whereas in other towns you'd be cuffed by a cop for walking outside with a bottle of beer, in Vegas you can buy a frikkin' yard of Margarita and wander the Strip with it. It's amazing. We never actually got around to buying one of the huge Margaritas, which was a shame. I need to organize a shameless Vegas trip with all my crazy-ass girlfriends. That would be rad.
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Ha hah... my ex took me on my first trip to Vegas. He got us a suite at the hotel at Mandalay Bay, so we weren't exactly fighting rats at Circus-Circus with a rake.
Vegas is ... amazing. We walked all over the new strip. We had steak at Gallagher's at NY NY that made me weep with joy, it was so delicious. We checked out the Shark Reef exhibit at the Mandalay Bay, which was pretty schweet (I totally want a jellygiraffe aquarium). The whole time we were there was just magical.
My favorite part about Vegas is that public drunkenness is not only encouraged, it's expected. Whereas in other towns you'd be cuffed by a cop for walking outside with a bottle of beer, in Vegas you can buy a frikkin' yard of Margarita and wander the Strip with it. It's amazing. We never actually got around to buying one of the huge Margaritas, which was a shame. I need to organize a shameless Vegas trip with all my crazy-ass girlfriends. That would be rad.
Ones doesn't buy alcohol in Vegas. One has alcohol brought to them.
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Reading that column really makes me want to go to vegas. Unfortunately, I am a poor college student, with hard working parents who would never give me money to go to Vegas and all of my free money goes to some form of instant gratification. Fuck.
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Smick-- Yes, I think that's the article I remember. Pretty much everything on the internet is a blur to me at this point.
Keith-- You seriously need to check out the El Cortez (http://www.cheapovegas.com/vegas_casino_full.php?hotel_id=1011). They are cheap as hell ($25-40 a night during the slow times) and it's an extremely nice place if you don't mind occasionally being asked if you know any loan sharks while eating breakfast.
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We had steak at Gallagher's at NY NY that made me weep with joy, it was so delicious.
Did you get any 'mellon squishin's on you?
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Now that's a garnish!
Also, my parents went to Vegas when it was being billed as a family tourist destination, and I was a teen. They sort of wanted me to go, but I was so not into it. I took it as my opportunity to get insanely shit faced on drugs back home. I had a really bad trip, had a strait edge friend drive me home, gouged my contacts out while terrified I would pull out my eye sockets, locked myself in my bedroom (my bedroom had a lock thank god) and had to check my stereo every 5 minutes because I was sure I had it on and turned to full volume even though it was off. Also, I had a poster of two groovy kids from the 60's over my bed, and they kept leaning out of the poster and learing at me accusingly. I was also convinced the family dog wanted to eat me (hence the locked bedroom door). My parents came home from Vegas that night, and I sat up terrified that they'd force their way into my locked bedroom and find me tripping out, strung out, with my pupils dialated. I'd also had a party at the house a few days earlier which I cleaned up from so well they never knew.
Translation: what you do while your parent's are in Vegas stays something they don't know happened while they were away in Vegas.
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daaaamn mel! That sounds like a scary experience. I foolishly tried the same type of thing when I was 16. I remember lying in bed, trying to feign sleep while everyone else in the house was sleeping, hallucinating vividly and my heart going a million miles an hour. I also kept thinking that music or something was on full blast because my ears were ringing and tender. The hallucinations were Terrifying. Kids, do not try that. It's no fun at all.
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jesus. the more I hear stories like this, the more I think that I missed out on all the good highschool experiences. all of my friends are total straitlaced rich kids. blegh.
...except the ones who do hell of drugs and such. But I never got invited to their parties. Too many times bringing up Minor Threat, I suppose.
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Bad trips don't have to happen - but avoiding them rely on your emotional health as much as anything else. Also, it's good to have a buddy who knows the ropes.
I neither recommend nor denounce psychotropics.
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(to clarify, I mean the high school experiences of doing crazy shit when your parents are out of town, etc. not the bad trips.)
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I had some great times when my folks were out of town. Me and Kellichou had the BEST THANKSGIVING EVER when our parents went out of town and we were 15 or 16. Wombie, do you remember that? God that was fun. We cooked up a turkey breast and a few other Thanksgiving accoutrements and had a fabulous time.
I don't know about house parties. One of my best friends growing up was housesitting for her parents friends in high school over New Year's. These people had oyster white carpet. You can guess what happened next...someone brought Sangria to the party and she spent New Year's Day cleaning up Sangria puke stains all over that gorgeous carpet. Busted!
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I am a firm believer in the HST advice "Buy the ticket, take the ride". It is that thought that helps me through dips in a trip or heavy drug comedowns.
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Bad trips don't have to happen - but avoiding them rely on your emotional health as much as anything else. Also, it's good to have a buddy who knows the ropes.
See, now these two sentences kind of boil down to the whole problem of my bad trip. Indeed all my friends tried to put it on me with the whole "you must have been in a bad head space" type thing, but indeed I wasn't - it was a very happy period of my life, and was really happy that night to be out with friends, and was looking forward to a great experience. I remember right be for doing the drugs that I was walking around in a beautiful dress, feeling like I was on top of the world, and turning to one friend and saying "I feel like a goddess." The problem, the problem was that right after we all had our share, all my friends abandoned me. I was unable to find them, then I did find two of them who were both high on E and tangled together on the floor on a pile of coats, groping each other, grabbing each others tits (though not lesbian), sloppy making out, etc. It's very disturbing to see your friends eating each others faces when they've never done this before. Then the coats on the floor turned to a sea of snakes, and I found myself screaming in a bathroom stall, the walls melting. Then one of my E high friends found me and kept telling me my tears were beautiful and trying to grope me, and asking if she could kiss me. I then became convinced that everyone was contaminated and wouldn't let anyone near me. Thankfully one of our friends wasn't high that night and took me home. Bad times all around. Horrible, horrible times.
Of course that was only be beginning of my drug use. I had lots and lots of fun times too. I don't have advice for anyone when it comes to substances. I just know that I myself am done with them.
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Sounds like your buddies didn't know the ropes, really. And it's a very rare person who, in high school, is really emotionally ready to deal with psychotropics and the potential disasters that await.
I always imagined a wall, anywhere between 2 and 200 feet away from me, that I would not allow myself to reach. That wall and its proximity reflected the strength of the drug and represented at any given time my risk of bad-tripping.
When it got too close I would go home, put on my roommate's Kenwood headphones (nice!) and a few great pre-grunge CDs, turn off the lights, and zone into the music. I was able to pull out of a bad trip once (my left arm, hip, and shoulder were immersed in the wall) and avoid bad trips several times when I saw them coming.
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Vegas is fabulous. You can have a great time or dive right into whatever depth of trouble you want, it's all there.
I was outed on a 'rents gone party one time by the girlyfriend and another fem going into the den and doing a chunk of the 5k piece puzzle moms had in the works. To their booze addled mind it was funs, to moms eyes it was something SON WOULD NEVER DO SO WHO WAS HERE AND WHY IS THE DOG HIDING SON. So caught, so so caught.
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Ha. Yeah. That's a parent's worst nightmare. Having their puzzle partially done.
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Onstad discussed Vegas via Ray in this installment of Ray's place. I remember it well, because your humble Mayor was the one who posed the question.
http://www.achewood.com/raysplace.php?date=08192003&allnav=1
I loves me some Vegas, but now that we have little kids I haven't had much of an opportunity to go. Rather than retype it all, I will refer you to this page I wrote in a fit of Vegas mania a couple years back. Also, you should stay at the Flamingo because it's a decent value, has a great location in the middle of the Strip, and has an awesome pool.
http://www.bigfool.com/vegas10.htm
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Ha. Yeah. That's a parent's worst nightmare. Having their puzzle partially done.
They were rocking out.
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Onstad discussed Vegas via Ray in this installment of Ray's place. I remember it well, because your humble Mayor was the one who posed the question.
http://www.achewood.com/raysplace.php?date=08192003&allnav=1
I loves me some Vegas, but now that we have little kids I haven't had much of an opportunity to go. Rather than retype it all, I will refer you to this page I wrote in a fit of Vegas mania a couple years back. Also, you should stay at the Flamingo because it's a decent value, has a great location in the middle of the Strip, and has an awesome pool.
http://www.bigfool.com/vegas10.htm
I went to Vegas for my 21st birthday with my parents and my 4th grade teacher and her husband. We stayed at the Flamingo and it worked really well. Especially because right next door was a place with $3 craps.
Plus they have actual flamingos. And penguins. In the desert.
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I went to Vegas for my 21st birthday with my parents and my 4th grade teacher and her husband.
I'll bite: how did this situation come to pass?
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Especially because right next door was a place with $3 craps.
You mean the Barbary Coast? I stayed there - no complaints other than Fat Elvis and lack of ventilation. Nice big room, though, for cheap, with a view of the Bellagio fountains. $5min roulette, too, and sometimes $3 pai gow.
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I was outed on a 'rents gone party one time by the girlyfriend and another fem going into the den and doing a chunk of the 5k piece puzzle moms had in the works.
A friend of mine, once, got busted for a party on the strength of the fact that his father's frozen welsh-rarebit was missing and he was known to not like that food. My slightly-younger brother and I were both there and... well... my father's side of the family is sort of legendary for the drunk-munchies and... yeah.
We weren't even eating it with bread or anything. We just ate it with spoons, very un-classy. A total Hunts move.
At the same party, I also drunkenly shouted down a woman who was stoned-ly insulting Hilary Clinton. For some reason, blasted out of my mind, it was very important to defend the former first lady's honour.
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You mean the Barbary Coast? I stayed there - no complaints other than Fat Elvis and lack of ventilation. Nice big room, though, for cheap, with a view of the Bellagio fountains. $5min roulette, too, and sometimes $3 pai gow.
No, on the other side. It was tiny place with a Burger King in it. It had some terribly stereotypical Irish name. Like O'Malley's or somesuch.
I went to Vegas for my 21st birthday with my parents and my 4th grade teacher and her husband.
I'll bite: how did this situation come to pass?
My mom teaches 2nd grade at the same school so they're good friends. The four of them went to Vegas every year for like 15 years. Just last year my teacher moved there.
My principal from K–3 was also my Godfather. And my 1st grade teacher was my best friend's mom.
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my brother and sister's elementary school science teacher was my friend's mom. she spent all of our high school years conspiring to get us together, including at one point telling another mom that she basically thought we were meant to be together, that our kids would be so cute, etc. At graduation, she told me she'd always thought of me "like a son."
I still regret not saying "that's good-- I've always thought of (friend) like a sister."
(although that would be untrue, I had a major, emo-song-inducing crush on her from 8th grade until 11th.)